Chqnagh River Will Be in Critical Condition Because of SHPPs

EcoLur

The Chqnagh River is the right tributary to the Dzoraget River. It starts from Bazum mountain range and flows in east and north-east directions.

It flows into the Dzoraget River in a distance of 119 km from the river mouth. The Chqnagh River is a typical mountainous river with seasonal nature of water regime. The river has mixed nutrition in the form of snow, rain and ground water. The length of the Chqnagh River is 28 km, and the total drainage area is 1630.0 km2.

“Stepnavavan-2” SHPP is being constructed on this river by “Shumen” LLC, under the project its derivation length will be 1700 meters. Thus, the SHPP will pipe a total river area of 1700 meters, which will make up 6․07142857%of the river.

As of 1 January 2013, under the licenses issued by Public Services Regulatory Committee the following licenses were issued for the construction of SHPPs on the Chqnagh River:

As a result, a total of 8470 meters of river area will be piped, which makes up 30.25% of the river. Under EcoLur’s Ecological Risk Model, this indicator is critical for the river.

It should be mentioned at the public hearings on “Stepanavan-2” SHPP held on March 1 Stepanavan Municipality Agriculture and Environment Department Head Vardan Mkrtchyan and Stepanavan Aarhus Center Coordinator Manya Meliqjanyan pointed out that the area of the Chqnagh River is a resort zone, but the developer noted that the category of these land areas were changed to land areas of energetic significance in line with the governmental resolution no. 1523 dated on 1 September 2005.

Under the official website of Lori Region, “Sahakyan SHPP-1”, “Sahakyan SHPP-2”, “Stepanavan-2” SHPPs will be operated in 2014.

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